1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to modular furniture that assembles without requiring the extensive use of tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Modular or ready-to-assemble furniture, such as chairs or couches, is typically made by attaching components, such as the base, arms and the back, to each other. Once assembled, the furniture looks like conventionally manufactured nonmodular furniture. The components may include cushioning material or a surface to support a pillow.
Modular furniture should be readily assembled and disassembled. The owner easily moves modular furniture by taking it apart and moving the parts to a new location. This advantage is particularly important in small spaces, such as small room or apartments which have close quarters.
The furniture""s fabric attaches to the exterior of the components, either permanently such as by gluing or stapling, or temporarily such as with hook-and-loop fasteners, ties or buttons. Removable fabric allows the components to be disassembled and the fabric detached for cleaning and/or replacement.
One known modular furniture design includes armrests having one of a plurality of styles attached to the seating component. In such a modular furniture design, such as a couch, back cushions are placed on top of the seat cushions and are leaned against a headrest; or, alternatively, the back cushions are attached to seat cushions via a generally L-shaped ladder back frame. The ladder back frame includes two upstanding portions which are received within a space formed in the bottom of the arm cushions. The arm cushions may have one of a plurality of exterior shapes, with the overall style and appearance of the article of furniture remaining the same.
A problem with conventional modular furniture, and particularly seating furniture, is that while certain designs may allow one or a few components of the article of furniture to be relatively easily assembled or disassembled, the resulting structure is relatively weak and is therefore easily damaged. While additional support may be added to these designs, the additional support decreases the ease of assembly and disassembly of the modular furniture. Adding additional fasteners may provide additional support and hold the components together, but this increases the complexity of assembly or disassembly. Alternatively, the components may be enhanced to be self-supporting which greatly adds to their cost.
A major market for modular furniture is the commercial market for furnished apartments and dormitories, especially for college students. Students living in dormitories and furnished apartments are young and unsupervised, often drinking and partying. These students may roughly handle the furniture, often sitting on the arms and tables rather than within the supported seat. Easily damaged furniture does not last in this rough and tumble world of young adults.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,414, issued Apr. 14, 1998, to Wieland et al. and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, addresses many of the above-recited problems. While the furniture is easily assembled, this furniture requires L-shaped metal brackets that slide into reinforced slots. The metal brackets are bolted to the furniture frame for stability.
Another design for modular furniture involves modular pieces that interlock horizontally without using a metal bracket. In this furniture design, horizontal tabs on the pieces, especially the arms, insert horizontally within slots. The furniture""s feet are attached to the arm as well. With this type of horizontal interlocking, larger pieces of furniture, such as a sofa, have insufficient support in the middle and thus tend to sag in the middle. Another problem is when a large amount of weight is put on the arm, such as when a college student sits on the arm, the weight or force transfers to the attached feet. This transferred force increases the torque on the arm, which further weakens the horizontal connection. Over time and repeated abuse, the increased torque could cause the arm to separate from the rest of the seat, or possibly to break the arm off at the tab.
Additionally, interlocking horizontal tabs of the arm, with the horizontal slots of the seat can be difficult. Interlocking larger pieces horizontally is awkward and hard, especially for small people. Before interlocking, the assembler must align and slide a bulky piece of furniture horizontally.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to produce modular furniture that avoids these problems. One object of the invention is to produce modular furniture that is structurally secure, especially larger pieces of furniture, without detracting from the assembly and disassembly or greatly increasing the cost of manufacturing. Another object of the invention is to produce releasably interlocking furniture pieces that can withstand substantial abuse without separation or breakage. Another object of the invention is to produce interlocking furniture that is less awkward to interlock, especially larger pieces of the furniture. Still another object of the invention is a modular furniture design which retains the exterior fabric while allowing for easy removal.
The invention relates to a modular furniture apparatus. The modular furniture has a seat and an arm that interlock in a substantially vertical manner. The seat has a top, a bottom, a front, a rear, and opposite sides, with a top slot in the top of the seat. The seat also has an outer shelf extending outwardly from the side and an inner shelf extending inwardly from the side. The outer shelf has a brace slot and the inner shelf has a brace opening.
The arm has an arm hook and a foot. The arm hook outwardly extends from the arm to releasably engage one of the top slots. The foot releasably mates with the brace slot of the outer shelf.
The furniture usually has aback and aback hook that extends downwardly from the back and releasably mates with the brace opening of the inner shelf. The back interlocks with the seat in a substantially vertical manner.
Additional effects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description that follows.